The semi-weekly fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-11-25
Proper Handling of Cream.

Not hong since a farmers wife COM
planned to us that she did not get the
yield of butter from her cows that one
of her neighbors did, and she wished to
know if we could give her any light on
the subject. Upon inquiry we found
that the cows on both farms were natives
and handled about alike. But when we
inquired farther into the manner of car
ing for the cream, we saw at once where
the difficulty lay. Although she had
been a reader of the Dai1ynaJ1 for years,
she had such stubborn notions of her
own that she had learned but little on
this important point.
1t was her practice to skim her milk
every morning and put the cream in an
earthen jar, which was kept in the cellar.
Churning was done twice week, if her
husband or the boys were not too busy.
But the particular point where she failed
was in putting the last Swimming of
cream into the churn Immediately after
it was taken from the milk When we
told her that she received but little bene-
fit from the last Swimming thus handled,
she colld hardly be persuaded of the
truth of our assertion. We are convinced
that this mistake is largely INDUCED in by
the making of farm butter. Yet they
might as we'll throw the last skimming to
the pigs, for there is where it finally goes
in the buttermilk. The last Swimming
should be thoroughly stirred with the
older cream and the whole kept from six
TO twelve hours, depending upon the
age and acidity of the older cream be-
fore churning. The way most
people stir their cream fails of
the desired result. They put in a
cream paddle and simply whirl each
layer or days cream in circle by itself
without mixing the first and last
thoroughly together This is best done
by turning the cream from one vessel
into another. Then, again, quite often
loss is Occasioned by mixing the milk of
shippers with fresh COWS. That the
cream of different cows when mixed does
not produce butter at the same time,
with the same amount of Churning, has
been illustrated in the family of Mark
Hughes at West Grove, Pa. They had
an Alderney heifer in good flow of milk,
and COW, stripper; their cream worked
together. 1t was observed that they did
not make butter enough for the bulk of
cream. The buttermilk looked rich and
seemed to collect cream upon it. They
put the buttermilk in the churn again
after the butter came and made five
pounds. They churned for few min
utes and found two or three pounds more
OF butter in the churn, showing that the
helfer's cream had made butter first and
that the cream of the old cow needed
several minutes more churning. Where
the cream of COWS of such unequal milk
ing periods are mixed together, great
care should be taken that the whole is
thoroughly mixed and ripened. Unless
this is done, a considerable portion of
the slower cream is washed into butter
milk as soon as the quicker cream comes
to butter. There is great deal in this
point of unequal churning time in cream,
and the only way that we know of to
avoid loss, aside from churning each
DAY cream or each cows cream by itself,
Is to see to it that the cream is frequently
mixed and ripened together, SO as to
make as near as possible homogeneous
"hole.-H0ard'S Dairynsan.